News From the Blog

High Elf

High Elves are the first humanoid inhabitants of Eletreus, arriving there from ‘across the seas and across the stars’ in the year soon after the age of Dragons in the second Aeon (believed to be, according to their own records, 7876 B.E.). Where exactly they came from is a secret known only to the immortal elves of the High Council of Princes in the Eleven Homelands – but what is established is that they are not native to Eletreus, but fell in love with its natural beauty and were the first to pay homage to the Sun Good and Moon Goddess and assisted humanity to establish the first Druidic orders.

Standing approximately 5′ tall on average, they are shorter than most humans but just as strong physically, and their strength can often be deceptive – many are much stronger and hardier than they appear. With extremely long lifespans averaging well over 2000 years, the first 100 years of their life is their childhood, seemingly pausing for decades at a similar stage of development to a 9-11 year old human, and then blossom into adolescence after age 100, whereupon they change very little for the next 1500 years, only begging to show some signs of aging towards the end of their lifespans.

This long life tends to make them extremely wise and slow to take action, especially when compared to humans, and they can spend decades or even centuries on what humans would consider frivolous past times, and they typically take a long time to consider their words before speaking with long pauses and silence as they consider the impact of each word, which can be frustrating to humans.

Placid and peaceful by nature, they are hard pressed to anger and will only usually fight in self defense, and abhor violence and prefer to incapacitate their foes, but have no qualms about killing creatures such as Orcs, Ogres and especially Shadow Elves, who will illicit and uncharacteristic fury in them when encountered. Goblins in particular are terrified of them, though they show no interest in them and will usually ignore them.

Physically they are similar in appearance to humans, but with much more refined features, pointed ears, high cheek bones, almond shaped eyes of emerald blue, grey, green or hazel, and luxuriant manes of golden blonde, white, light brown or silver hair, which they tend to wear long and tie in elaborate braids.

Due in part to their long lifespans, nature has seemingly made the males of the species ambivalent about procreation, preferring more ethereal pursuits, and this combined with the fact that the males tend to be largely infertile – often failing to bear a child for centuries – has kept their population largely in check and stable. Furthermore, their families tend to be small and close knit, though fraternal twins are quite commonly born and are often sister and brother.

The females on the other hand are quite fertile and because of their natural grace and beauty, has enthralled many a human would be suitor, but are generally reluctant to get too involved with humans as they are brought up hearing tragic stories of how such unions are too short lived for the Elven counterpart of said relationships (Elves partner for life, and if their partner dies, they do not take a second soul mate). Furthermore, their half-elven offspring are usually not permitted to stay in the homelands, most of whom relocate to Silverleaf.

Because of their long lifespans and high incidence of innate magical talent, Elves make natural magicians and are capable of great feats of magic that can sometimes take decades to complete highly complex the magic rituals that take centuries to master. As such, they are both respected and feared for their magical prowess, and many are also exceptional swordsmen and archers, with keen eyesight akin to a hawk and night vision similar to a cat, so that on the rare occasions that they are forced to fight, they do so with frighting efficiency and should never be underestimated.